Fitter female Aussie rules footy players may be more skilful, but not less likely to be injured

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-02-23 06:00

Australia; New Zealand; VIC; QLD

What does this mean?

Jump to: MultimediaAttachmentsExpert Reaction

An Australian study of 223 female Australian football players across five competition levels found fitter players tend to be more technically skilled, but are not necessarily less likely to injure themselves. The researchers measured physical fitness and football kicking and handballing during the 2018/19 pre-seasons, and time-loss injuries were recorded by team personnel during the in-season. They then used stats to look for links between fitness and injury, but a link between lower agility and injury did not stand up when players' age and years of experience were taken into account. However, they found that increased running vertical jump height, greater hip abduction strength, and faster timed 6 m hop speed were linked with more accurate kicking, while faster agility time and increased lean mass were linked with more accurate handballing